Wednesday, February 1, 2017

I found out some time ago, that a "friend" who is quite close to me personally, made an election choice that I felt was a little strange. This "friend" is a male, over 60, with a high school education, and had built a life working hard in a bureaucratic post with the state and city. Of course this is the exact demographic that voted for our current administration. I felt that this person's election choice was strange because, without regard to who is a Republican and who is a Democrat, ultimately your party affiliations do not matter for a presidential election once you are in the polling booth, you are voting for a person or personality. Why a strange choice then? Well the person elected has absolutely nothing in common (beyond being a male and over 60) with this "friend". There is little in common between the two individuals beyond gender and age.

So I then asked this "friend", why did you vote the way you did? The answer was just as curious. The "friend" replied, "he wanted change". I pressed further, "change what?", the answer: "everything". This from an individual who does not like change. Who is a creature of habit. Who refuses to acknowledge that someone who is 20-something years old may have a contribution to make to a discussion, because someone that young brings in "different ideas and thinking". I pointed all of this out, and was met with silence. Being me, I had to push buttons. I said, "you know...what if all of this change brings about catastrophe? What if, we are faced with attacks on our way of life from outside that causes our system to break down, and WE are faced with something like martial law or worse?". My "friends" response was chilling: "I don't care, I am old already, I won't be around.".